Celina is a young Mohawk girl who moves to her mother’s home reserve. She is teased by her classmates who tell her that she is not Mohawk and does not belong because she has blond hair and blue eyes. Celina starts to believe her classmates and decides not to dance at an upcoming Pow Wow. But her great-grandmother helps Celina understand that being Mohawk is not about how she looks but about what she feels in her heart. When the drumming starts at the Pow Wow, Celina decides to dance after all.
A beautifully illustrated story, I Like Who I am explores issues of bullying and belonging as Celina looks for acceptance in her new community.
This moving tale of self-discovery takes place during the Oka uprising in the summer of 1990. Adopted as an infant, Carrie has always felt somehow out of place. Recurring dreams haunt her, warning her that someone close to her is in danger.
When she discovers that her birth family is Mohawk living in Quebec, Carrie makes the long journey and finally achieves the sense of home and belonging that has always eluded her.
Joy’s fondest childhood memories are of sitting on her gramma’s lap learning to drum, to speak Mohawk, and to be a storyteller. When she lost her gramma and her connection to her Mohawks roots when she was eight, Joy used her stories to keep her gramma close to her heart. Years later, with a husband and triplets, Joy slowly gives up pieces of herself to take care of her family, including becoming her husband’s full-time caregiver as a mysterious illness overtakes his body. Shortly after his death, her daughters move away for school, and Joy finds herself with no one to take care of for the first time in almost two decades.
Lost and alone, Joy turns to television and social media to mask her pain. Following an intervention by her daughters, Joy slowly embarks on a journey of self-discovery to heal her heart and find her true self again.
One night, in her dreams, Stella is visited by her Nuu-chah-nulth great-grandmother, who teaches her a family song to call her guardian orca to her. Convinced he is real, they have a lot of adventures in her dreams. Then one day, when Stella and her parents are swept out to sea in a storm, Stella calls to her orca to rescue them and proves that he is not just her imaginary friend.
When Sky starts grade five at Karonhianónhnha school in Kahnawà:ke, strange things start happening on day one — a swing moving with no one on it, flickering lights, notebooks mysteriously rearranged. Word spreads fast: the school is haunted.
Everyone is scared of the ghost. Everyone except Sky.
Where her classmates see something to fear, Sky senses sadness. The ghost isn’t trying to scare anyone — he’s lost, lonely, and searching desperately for someone he loves. As Sky gets to know the ghost boy, she begins piecing together the heartbreaking truth about who he is, where he came from, and why he can’t move on.
But helping him find peace will mean uncovering a painful piece of history — and bringing together two people whose hearts have been broken for a very long time.
School Spirit is a story about the courage it takes to trust what your heart tells you when no one else believes you, the importance of kindness toward those who are misunderstood, and the healing power of love that never stops searching.
Perfect for readers ages 9–12 who love ghost stories, friendship, and emotionally moving adventures rooted in real history.
Includes a Kanien’kéha (Mohawk language) glossary.
Written at an accessible reading level for younger middle grade readers and reluctant readers.
Some fears live in the water. Some live inside us. Luke has always felt most at home in the St. Lawrence Seaway, until the summer everything changed.
When a creature begins terrorizing his Mohawk community of Kahnawà:ke, Luke watches his once-vibrant hometown shut down. Schools close. Neighbors fight online instead of helping each other. And everyone, including Luke, stays safely inside, afraid.
But Luke can’t stop thinking about what his grandmother told him: that the monster has been here before. And that the last time it came, it was because the community had lost something far more dangerous to lose than their safety — their connection to each other.
As Luke digs deeper into the mystery of the Seaway monster, he begins to wonder if the real courage isn’t hunting a creature at all. It’s doing the one thing everyone else is too afraid to try: bringing people back together.
Monster in the Seaway is a story about fear, friendship, and the quiet bravery it takes to stand up, not against a monster, but for the people you love. Perfect for readers 9-12 who believe that the strongest thing you can do is reach out a hand.
Includes a Kanien’kéha (Mohawk language) glossary.
Written at an accessible reading level for younger middle grade readers and reluctant readers.